


Communication

by coreopsis



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-01
Updated: 2005-08-01
Packaged: 2017-10-15 03:32:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/156595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coreopsis/pseuds/coreopsis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was written for the sga_flashfic challenges "first contact" and "blood".  So that's what happens via alien bats.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Communication

"What the hell...bats?" Rodney instinctively ducked his head down as he pointed his flashlight and gun toward the roof of the cave. "You said there wouldn't be bats."

"I said there probably wouldn't be bats," said Sheppard, shining his light higher as well. "The possibility was always there. It's a cave, after all, and caves have bats. On Earth, anyway. Though I'd expect them to be sleeping, since it's daytime."

Their flashlights did little to illuminate the darkness that stretched up and away, going on for a great distance, nor the creatures that darted about overhead at the edges of the flashlights' narrow beams. One of them swooped right into the beam of Rodney's light, and as he ducked he caught a glimpse of gleaming fangs. He shot a wide-eyed look at Sheppard, and what he saw made his eyes go even wider.

Sheppard stood with his arms wide open and his hands turned up, his P90 dangling from its clip on his vest, the light shining uselessly down at the floor of the cave. He was staring intently up at half a dozen bats that had broken away from the throng and were now circling a couple feet above him.

"Major..." Rodney's voice was a strangled croak, so he cleared his throat and whispered, "Maj...damn it, I mean, 'Colonel.' What are you doing?"

"I don't know," said Sheppard in a conversational tone that seemed a bit forced, "but I can't stop."

"What should we do?" Rodney asked, flipping through possible scenarios in his head. Perhaps the bats were going to suck out all their blood, or maybe--he eyed the formidable-looking claws visible halfway across their caramel-brown wings--the bats would just crack their skulls open and lay eggs inside their brains, except that bats didn't lay eggs, did they? No, no, they were mammals, so no eggs. Of course, these were alien bats in another galaxy so the options for death and destruction were nearly endless, and each was more terrifying than the last.

Sheppard didn't get a chance to answer Rodney's question because one of the bats broke formation and settled on his right hand. It stared at Rodney, a strange and disconcerting glint of intelligence in its amber-jewel eyes. Another bat then came down to settle on Sheppard's left hand.

"Colonel Sheppard?" Rodney dragged his gaze away from the bat on the right and looked at Sheppard. His face was so white it almost glowed in the dimness and he was breathing deep and even, almost as if he was asleep but his eyes were wide open. "Are you all right?"

"He is unharmed." The mouth moving was John's and the voice was John's, although with an echoing quality that had nothing to do with the cave, but something drew Rodney's eyes back to the bat on the right. "Yes, I speak through him. His ancestors were welcome here."

Rodney nodded and swallowed. "Yes, yes, we're from Atlantis."

"You feel...strange, different. Not like this one." The bat watched Rodney as if reading his mind--and maybe it could, for all Rodney knew. It was certainly using Colonel Sheppard for its own personal cell phone with little difficulty.

"I had slightly different ancestors," was the best Rodney could come up with, short of going into a long lecture on genetic research and gene therapy, but it seemed to be enough.

"I am Mar." The bat on the right pointed a wing claw at the bat on John's left hand. "She is Pel. Why are you come?"

"Dr. Rodney McKay, and I suppose you know Colonel John Sheppard now. Are you sure he's OK? He looks awfully pale."

"He sleeps, only awake," said Mar, and it was unnerving to hear such dismissiveness in Sheppard's voice. "Why are you come?"

"We're searching for a friend. He's missing and his trail led us to this planet. We thought he might have taken refuge in these caves." Rodney tried to focus on Mar, because who knew what would happen if he caused offense, but his eyes kept shifting back to Sheppard's face.

"Your friend is not here." Mar stretched out his wings and puffed up his furry body. A spasm passed over Sheppard's face and his entire body visibly tensed. "Has not been."

"Stop that! You're hurting him!" Rodney exclaimed before he could stop himself.

"We have not connected for a long time." Mar settled back down and Pel sidled up Sheppard's arm, curling her clawed feet around his biceps and leaning forward to stare into his face. She made a soft cooing sound like nothing Rodney had ever heard on Earth or anywhere else, and Sheppard relaxed slightly. "No...Atlanteans...have been to our caves in many cycles of night. Since the time of our ancestors' ancestors."

"Yes, Atlantis has, uh, has had some trouble for the last...oh, ten thousand years. If our friend isn't here, then we should go and leave you in peace. Could I have Colonel Sheppard back now?"

"His ancestors gave tribute in return for our alliance. If you come again, we require something in trade."

"No problem, I'm sure." Feeling certain there was no chance he was coming back here ever again, Rodney was willing to agree to pretty much anything short of nuclear weapons--because didn't _that_ tick Dr Weir off?

"Fish," said Mar, interrupting Rodney's train of thought before it got too depressing. "Atlantis teems with fish. His ancestors were generous."

"Yes, okay, fish and lots of it. Can I have Colonel Sheppard back please?" Rodney tried to smile but was sure it came off as a nervous grimace instead. "We'll get right out of your h-- wings."

"May Norag be with you on your quest." Without warning, both bats launched themselves into the air and were instantly lost in the rush-hour traffic overhead.

Sheppard blinked, sighed, and then collapsed slowly to the ground. Rodney hurried to his side, calling his name and hoping the bats hadn't lied about Sheppard being okay.

"Colonel? Colonel, can you hear me?" Sheppard's eyes didn't open, so Rodney patted him lightly on the cheek. His skin was colder than it should have been given the comfortable temperature of the cave, and that scared Rodney more than the bats had. He smacked Sheppard's cheek just a little harder.

Sheppard groaned and raised his right hand clumsily to his face where Rodney had touched him. Rodney gasped at the smear of dark blood left behind and grabbed Sheppard's hand, pointing his flashlight at it. He could just make out four little slices across the palm, through the oozing flow of blood. "Oh. That's...that's not good at all."

Tucking the flashlight under his arm so that it still pointed at the general vicinity of his hand, Rodney tapped his radio and let Teyla, who'd waited outside to cover their backs, know what was going on while he checked Sheppard's left hand and arm for cuts from Pel's claws. "We need a medical team _now_. McKay out," he said, and laid the uninjured left hand across Sheppard's chest.

"OK, then, help is on the way and you...we just need to get the bleeding stopped and then you'll be fine, right? Right." Rodney set the flashlight down and dug his first aid kit out of his pack. "Colonel, are you with me?"

Sheppard's eyes cracked open but he didn't say anything.

"All right... you're going to be all right." Rodney sighed when that got no response at all and got out some antiseptic wipes and some gauze. He wiped away the blood but it didn't seem to be slowing any, so he just balled up a handful of gauze, pressed it to the wounds, and then wrapped both hands around Sheppard's hand to provide pressure.

After several tense moments, Rodney pulled back the gauze to see if the blood flow had stopped. It hadn't, not completely, but it had slowed enough that he felt safe in putting on a bandage.

"Colonel, can you hear me?" Rodney asked once he'd tied off the bandage and gently placed Sheppard's hand on his chest, hoping that was enough of an elevation to help the bleeding slow further.

Sheppard's mouth moved but no sound came out, so Rodney got out his canteen and raised Sheppard's head so he could drink. After a couple sips, Sheppard nodded. "Better," he said, his voice huskier than usual. "Cold."

"Oh, right, the blood was so distracting that I forgot," muttered Rodney as he took off his vest to get to his jacket. He spread the jacket over Sheppard's arms and chest and noticed the worried crumple of Sheppard's eyebrows. "Oh, the blood, no, your hand was bleeding but I think I've got it stopped...mostly. Teyla's bringing help."

"Don't wanna stay here." Sheppard tried to sit up, but must have been overcome with dizziness from the expression on his face.

"You're not going to throw up, are you?"

"No. But passing out is still an option." Sheppard squeezed his eyes shut and breathed deeply for a moment and then nodded slightly. "Let's try that again."

Rodney slipped one hand under Sheppard's back and wrapped the other around his far shoulder--not at all how he'd fantasized about cradling John's body in his arms--then lifted him into a sitting position. His face was very close to Sheppard's and Sheppard was staring at him in a way that Rodney couldn't hope to decipher. He'd thought he knew all the colonel's expressions, but this was a new one.

Suddenly feeling intensely uncomfortable, Rodney pulled back, but didn't let Sheppard go until he nodded. "I'm good. Give me a minute and then we'll try standing up."

"I'm not sure you should be moving around so much." Rodney's hands hovered just inches away from Sheppard in case Rodney needed to catch him.

"I _really_ don't want to stay here."

"No, no, I'm with you on that." The bats were all gone, but the cave still felt creepy and unwelcoming. "It's just that fainting from blood loss isn't--"

"I prefer the term 'passing out'," Sheppard interrupted with a ghost of a smile.

"Yes, well, _passing out_ from blood loss would not get you out of here any faster. It would, in fact, slow the process down considerably."

"What? You won't carry me out of here?"

"Only if absolutely necessary, and your passing out through sheer stubbornness is not what I consider necessary. So just sit there for a minute." Rodney passed him the canteen. "Have some more water."

Sheppard raised his right hand to take the canteen, probably out of habit, then switched to his left. Rodney watched him drink for a moment before asking, "So, what did it feel like? Did you know what was going on, or were you sleeping through it?"

"I knew. I was shut away, but I could hear my own voice saying someone else's words. It felt...like a violation." Sheppard caught Rodney's flinch and shook his head. "It's all...I'll get over it."

"But it's not all right."

"No. No, it pisses me off that a bat decided to use me for a microphone, but it's over and I'm fine, so there's no use dwelling on it."

"Right. Good." Rodney reached up to touch Sheppard's cheek, then pulled his hand back in embarrassment at the confused look Sheppard shot him. "I just wanted to see if you were still cold."

"A little." Sheppard handed Rodney the water and huffed out a breath. "OK, I need to get out of here now."

"We can do that, just give me a minute." Rodney quickly repacked the first aid kit and started to put his vest back on over his shirt, but Sheppard grabbed his arm.

"Wait, take your jacket back. It'll get a lot cooler outside the cave."

Rodney started to protest, but Sheppard pushed the jacket into his hands and pulled himself to his feet, so Rodney shoved his arms in the jacket sleeves and grabbed his vest. He put it on as he started walking after Sheppard. "I still don't think you should be moving so much. Teyla will be back with help any time now."

"I'm getting out of here if I have to crawl. Now, can you give it a rest for a minute or two?" Rodney took a deep breath to tell Sheppard exactly what he thought of that attitude, but then Sheppard looked at him in the dim light of their bobbing flashlights and Rodney let his breath out in long-suffering sigh. "Thanks. And thank you for telling him not to hurt me any more. He didn't know and would have kept doing it if you hadn't said something."

"It...it looked pretty awful," Rodney said, as they approached the mouth of the cave.

"Yeah." Sheppard cleared his throat and looked at Rodney in the sunshine pouring in from outside. His eyebrows did something complicated and one side of his mouth kicked up in a little smile. "This'll be one hell of a report to write."

"Yeah, have fun with that." Rodney reached out and wiped some of the blood off Sheppard's cheek. "We'll find Ford, you know. We have some other leads to follow up on. One of them could pan out, maybe even the next one."

Sheppard opened his mouth to say something, but then shut it because Teyla and a couple of medics were coming from the direction of the Stargate. "Yeah, we'll find him."

 

The end.

**Author's Note:**

> Really fantastic beta job by Kageygirl for the whole thing and Malnpudl for the first half (she gave me entire lines, people. She rocks). Neither is to blame for the lame title, though. that's all me and my last minute lameness. *g*


End file.
